The Story of Hong Gildong

State minister Hong mo is Gildong’s father and a nobleman. The term “mo” is a fake name (like “Mr. X”) intended to protect the bearer’s identity. By obscuring Minister Hong’s first name, the author makes it seem like he is a real person.

Minister Hong lives in Joseon’s capital city of Gyeongsang (also called Jangan) and comes from an illustrious family: “His progenitors had attained lofty positions in the royal court and had maintained great wealth for generations, so they were renowned throughout the country for their illustrious nobility” (1). He is a “former state councilor of the right” (42), which is one of the highest positions in government, directly under the king. Minister Hong is married and has an adult son, Inhyeon. The novel does not specify whether he has other illegitimate children. He has Gildong late in life, after forcing himself on a maid named Chunseom.

Minister Hong is torn between his love for his son and his loyalty to the king. He chooses to suppress Gildong lest his son rise above his station and—so Minister Hong believes—bring calamity. Minister Hong’s treatment of him prompts Gildong to run away. Though he loves his son and cannot bring himself to kill Gildong as others suggest, Minister Hong chooses to adhere to societal norms instead of breaking from tradition. In the end, the minister regrets his treatment of Gildong: “Ever since he went away, I have had to live without knowing whether my own son was alive or dead. And now I will pass from this world without seeing him again” (60). He tells his family that, if Gildong returns after his death, they should “lay aside the practice of separating legitimate children from the illegitimate, and act without discrimination toward him” (60). Minister Hong’s regret shows the futility of upholding arbitrary class boundaries.

Chunseom is a 19-year-old servant in the Hong household. She is of the cheonmin—“lowborn”—class. On the day Minister Hong’s wife rejects his sexual advances, Chunseom enters the bedroom to serve him tea, and he rapes her. During the encounter, she conceives Gildong.

The author uses Chunseom to show the absurdity of class distinctions: “Although Chunseom was only a servant girl, she had a gentle nature and her demeanor and actions were always as proper as those of a respectable maiden. She may have been lowborn, but there was nothing lowly about her character” (2). Like Gildong, Chunseom’s only “flaw” is her status, but only Gildong changes her circumstances and better her life.

When Gildong is young, Chunseom wants him to accept his low status and not make trouble for her sake. However, she is happy when she moves to Jae Island and is treated as a respected matriarch in Gildong’s household. Gildong making Chunseom the Dowager Queen of Annam is poetic justice for the low status she held in Joseon and a commentary on how little distinction there is between royalty and commoner.

Chorang is the antagonist. She is a former gisaeng (courtesan) from the town of Goksan and the senior concubine in Minister Hong’s household. She holds great influence in the family because she is the minister’s favorite. After Gildong is born, she becomes jealous of both him and Chunseom: “[The minister] began to say to her with a smile—‘You too should bring me happiness by giving me such a magnificent child’” (8). Chorang remains childless, and this further enflames her hatred of Chunseom and Gildong.

Chorang is a flat villain: “She was a fiendish person to start with and became ever more arrogant. Every time some trouble occurred in the household, she would always cause mischief by going to the minister and slandering those she did not like” (7). When it becomes clear that she will not have a child and has no other way to gain favor with Minister Hong, the only way she can allay her jealousy is to plot Gildong’s murder. In the end, Chorang’s greed makes her lose the things she values most. When Minister Hong discovers her plan, he banishes her to a faraway location. Chorang does not appear again in the narrative, but her actions set off the string of events that lead to Gildong escaping to become an outlaw.

Inhyeon is Gildong’s older half-brother, the legitimate son of Minister Hong and his wife. Inhyeon is a nobleman and the assistant section chief at the Ministry of Personnel. Like his father, he achieved his government position early and earned the king’s respect. Inhyeon is a foil for Gildong because he leads the kind of life that Gildong wishes for himself.

When Chorang realizes the minister will not have Gildong murdered, she turns to Inhyeon and his mother. They are both conflicted about having the boy killed but agree that consideration for their family and country should come before their personal feelings. Inhyeon says: “I dare not do such an inhuman thing. But then again, this is a matter of the welfare of the entire country as well as my parents. So how could I not do it?” (14). Like his father, Inhyeon wants to uphold tradition, but he also loves Gildong. Even after Gildong executes corrupt officials in the eight provinces and the king reprimands Inhyeon for failing to capture him, Inhyeon does not bear Gildong any ill will. He laments that they are destined to remain apart: “Our brotherhood, which is like the procession of wild geese, is sundered north and south, so how sad I am” (65). After they conclude the burial rights for his mother on Jae Island, Inhyeon acknowledges that they will never see each other again.